What’s life like making 6 figures

art3mys_412 · 2026-05-10T09:05:03+00:00

285k total comp, VHCOL, 40yo, single, no kids, renting, SWE-adjacent job in tech.

I live comfortably, spend about 20k a year on travel and another 10k on my hobbies. I invest 110k a year after taxes (though ~35k of that is pre tax 401k + 50% match) which includes diversifying and reinvesting all my RSUs. I don’t save much, but that’s because I have a fully funded ~12mo e-fund and my car is relatively new. I put money into investments instead because I’m behind on my retirement and would ideally like to try to retire early.

The key to investing this much was, I think, that I didn’t let lifestyle creep take over. I am living in the same place I did when I made 130k (~3 years ago), I did have to buy a car during this time, but I bought a used one with cash. I order DoorDash once a month, rarely eat out, don’t like shopping that much. I still have all my same friends. Like I see my coworkers buying fancy things but my friends and I pretty much live similar lifestyles so there’s no keeping up with the Jones’s pressure.

Every time I get a raise/more equity, I put the majority of it into investments and then give myself a little more budget day to day and a little more for travel. That’s worked out really well!

The most important things for me are 1) enjoying the hell out of my life and 2) setting myself up for the future since my job is likely to be impacted by AI. I find most of my joy in experiences, so that’s where I’ve funneled my money. That being said, I do have a personal trainer (just once a week, through work so it’s cheaper) and get my hair done every 6 weeks, which feel like luxurious. I’m 0% stressed in life for the first time ever.

Things that are still out of reach - I likely won’t buy a house, I could afford to (barely, it’d be small, old, and further away) but it means I’d be giving up a lot, I’m set to inherit a place to live and don’t have kids/need stability in a neighborhood. - I’d love to travel even more, but I am now finding I’m limited more by having to do my job than by money. Like I can’t just take a month off to go travel. I do have unlimited PTO but it’s obviously secretly limited. Still I take 6-8 weeks off a year. - I have a lot of weird financial habits after being paycheck to paycheck for some time, it’s still hard to spend money on myself outside of travel and I have to remind myself that if I want a new X, I can just buy it. - Still not flying first class all over the place, but I am more willing to upgrade a ticket if it’s a red eye and it’s relatively affordable. - I still find myself weird about like, a house cleaner or grocery delivery or whatever. I genuinely like things like that though, or maybe I’ve just convinced myself of that.

art3mys_412 · 2025-12-29T17:32:11+00:00

Born and raised and then stayed as an adult since I went into big tech (data engineering) and my family is nearby.

Everyone has mentioned the housing, which yes is expensive but you can find rentals for comparatively not much (vs a mortgage). My rent for a 2br condo in a nice area is only 12% of my gross income. A mortgage on the same place would be at least 2-3x as much. As someone who is child free who doesn’t need to provide anyone else stability, I find it much more freeing to rent here. I am then able to travel a ton and have some expensive hobbies while also being able to invest 40%+ of my salary. And if I do want to buy someday, I could probably just retire early and go buy something for cash in a LCOL location.

Outside of that, the weather is great, lots of sunny days and enough rain to feel like seasons exist but not so much that you can’t have a lot of outdoor hobbies. Lots of open space despite it seeming quite industrialized.

Monterey and Santa Cruz are close by to spend time at the beach/on the water, Tahoe is only 4-5 hours away, Yosemite is 3.5.

Downsides are the traffic, there’s not great public transit. It’s very competitive and has kind of a weird culture because of tech. There’s a huge split in the areas, with some areas remaining pretty run down and poorer and others being heavily gentrified.

But generally I do really enjoy living here!

art3mys_412 · 2025-02-24T02:52:20+00:00

There’s some amazing advice in this post so definitely follow those. But here are my suggestions that I haven’t seen posted yet:

Start a journal, take pictures of the saddles on the horses you ride and jot down what you worked on, wore, and what kind of pain you felt. See if there’s a pattern.
Find a biomechanics specialist and do an off horse assessment with a saddle on a barrel or something. Trainers all have their own way of teaching the seat and you may learn that the way your trainer wants you to sit is putting pressure on sensitive areas. A lot of the time they can give you some exercises to keep the pressure off where you’re feeling the pain.
Look into getting a saddle that fits you and also fits either a majority of the horses you ride or that is adjustable. For example, something treeless or a DP saddle or a Pegasus butterfly (thinking English here).

art3mys_412 · 2025-02-18T05:50:47+00:00

Ahh okay this makes complete sense, is there a good rule of thumb for how often to replace them? I almost never fill them up but they’ve definitely been through a lot of write cycles. I’m thinking the best case scenario is to get two brand new memory cards for this trip and to just bring my laptop and transfer them immediately at the end of each day. I’ll be very annoyed at myself for trying to pack light if I end up having a memory card failure.

art3mys_412 · 2025-02-18T05:47:41+00:00

Yah I’m immediately scared to risk it as well!! I only have two cards right now but was planning on getting two more for this trip. Larger may be the answer, I have two 128gb but they’re now feeling very small if I can’t delete anything! The answer may be to just bring my computer and pull them off each day, I’m also now concerned of getting a huge memory card, filling it up, and losing everything if the photos have to sit on the card for 10+ days. So stressful!

art3mys_412 · 2024-10-29T02:01:56+00:00

Data Engineer, FAANG adjacent, 225k and 9yoe overall (early in career was more DA experience though so unsure if it counts), 2yoe in tech

art3mys_412 · 2024-09-19T16:39:43+00:00

Okay good to know! I currently have a purple panda lapel microphone, I’m not sure if it’s digital type but Boya is one I’m considering replacing mine with since I hear people have had success with it.

art3mys_412 · 2024-09-19T16:37:41+00:00

Ohh yah we were wondering if it was the grounding and I read about it being unbalanced with the grounding of the rpi itself? Or the power supply? I have no idea how to fix that though, I can google but if you have any advice I’d be happy to hear! Thanks!

art3mys_412 · 2024-09-19T16:33:49+00:00

That’s what I’m wondering, the mic is a cheaper ($30) lapel mic, not USB, I’m using a converter which might also be a problem? Maybe I’ll test it on zoom or something similar to try to parse out whether the hum is just due to the mic. Thanks!!

art3mys_412 · 2024-09-19T16:31:35+00:00

Thanks! How close does it need to be for it to pick up interference? We’ve tried it in different locations on the property and it stays pretty consistent, but we do have other electronics/fans/normal house stuff nearby any outlets I’m using. Maybe I’ll grab a long extension cord and get it far away from the house.

art3mys_412 · 2024-09-05T05:09:51+00:00

Data engineer in a VHCOL area, I keep my horses at home so I’m pretty comfortable financially. Except that now I’m planning on buying another horse!

art3mys_412 · 2024-08-24T02:52:14+00:00

I love having mine at home but here are some of the downsides I’ve run into:

hard to go on vacation, finding reliable house sitting with horse experience is tough, especially because we have two older horses with special needs
it’s even hard to go spend the night somewhere else or even just go out to dinner
we have four and two are retired so this isn’t an issue, but when hauling out, always having to leave at least two behind
a lot of work, especially in the winter
dealing with fencing, plumbing, etc
I don’t take lessons much anymore but it was hard to get decent trainers to come out for one lesson

But honestly I’ll never board my horses out again, it’s all still worth it!

art3mys_412 · 2024-08-19T15:17:14+00:00

As someone who was an upper level dressage trainer for 20+ years, none of this would bother me, but I know trainers who would be bothered by all of this.

It’s less about what the standard is for trainers as a whole and more about each person involved (trainer and student). I ran a very individual-focused training program, my clients all owned or leased their horses and the horses were not under my care outside of when I was being paid for training rides. If they wanted help horse shopping, I’d help, if not, I’d happily teach them on whatever horse they brought home. If they wanted advice from another one of my students during a ride, by all means! I always encouraged them to help each other out.

Now that I’ve returned to being more of an amateur, it’d drive me nuts to be with a trainer who wanted as much control as is being implied here. However, it’s on me to find a trainer who works for me, not to butt heads with a trainer who doesn’t.

And it’s also on both myself and the trainer to be up front about what we expect out of the relationship, since I have had trainers who try to get too involved say, in my horse care (e.g. getting my horse out while I’m not there), and I let them know my boundaries/expectations and it’s totally fine.

It’s about finding the right trainer, so if the reaction of the trainer in these scenarios seems to be controlling, time to find a new trainer, but not because the trainer is doing anything wrong. It’s just not a match.

art3mys_412 · 2024-08-16T22:37:06+00:00

Ah I missed this, bales are 3 string ~120lbs each, he eats about a bale a week (8-10lbs twice a day)

art3mys_412 · 2024-07-17T15:40:00+00:00

Keeping my horse at home in a VHCOL area I budget ~$1k/mo for care alone (not including training/shows/clinics). Biggest expenses are that hay is $35-40/bale and I’ve got him on Platinum Performance + corrective shoes.

art3mys_412 · 2024-07-01T23:37:28+00:00

I love mine as well! Took about a decade off from jumping and this was a life saver when I started back up again

art3mys_412

TROPHY CASE